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High rents – Expensive real estate: housing prices become a risk of poverty

More and more Germans are overindebted. Especially the elderly are affected

In Germany, people are gorgeous, one should think. Unemployment is low and the economy is good. Nevertheless, more and more people are unable to pay their bills on a long-term basis and are over-indebted. This year, the number of over-indebted consumers in the Federal Republic has risen by around 19,000 to more than 6.9 million, the credit agency Creditreform reported on Tuesday in Dusseldorf. In other words, in just over one in ten adults, total expenditure is consistently higher than revenue. Overall, the Germans are now in debt with 208 billion euros.

This development particularly affects seniors from the age of 70 years. 263,000 of them are in debt – 35 percent more than last year. The situation is similar for the 60 to 69 year olds. The increase in employment at retirement age is an indication that the pension is often no longer sufficient, said the head of economic research of Creditreform, Michael Bretz. On the other hand, there is also a ray of hope: Consumers under the age of 30 have noticeably less debt.

Cause of the increasing debt are, among other things, the high housing prices . The development of income and housing costs has decoupled especially in structurally strong regions such as the big cities. While purchasing power is slow to settle, the cost of rents and real estate has soared. The Creditreform Debt Atlas states: “At least in German cities, housing has become a risk of poverty, in any case an over-indebted risk.” At the same time, the study warned that over-indebtedness, caused by high housing costs, would only be visible with a time lag Real estate boom abated. ” Moreover , if the economic situation deteriorates , which is to be expected in view of the global conditions and the economic cycle, the number of cases of over-indebtedness will increase noticeably in the near future.”

Although unemployment is still the most common cause of debt, it is becoming less important as a booming job market. Instead, uneconomic housekeeping is developing into a new main trigger.